Monday, 10 January 2011

What's The Difference Between This

And this?

The first cross hair symbol was used by Sarah Palin on a map of the United States on the places being targeted by her party. Following the tragic shooting of Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords and six innocent bystanders at the weekend the Internet has been awash with claims that the cross hair was an incitement to violence by Palin and a catalyst for the lone gunman to carry out his terrible deed.

The bulls eye target has been used by the Democrats in similar maps see below

And it is disingenuous of the political left (whose policies I support in part) to seize upon the imagery as evidence of sinister intent. We know that the Tea Party is verging on the extreme and that Palin is an ignorant gung ho politician who opens her mouth before putting her brain into gear but spurious arguments like this do a disservice to those who wish to discredit her and her party with valid argument. Nobody with any sense would see Palin's map as anything other than a statement of target seats to be won. Perhaps the imagery was insensitive but little more than the bulls eye which is also associated with guns and accompanied by the screaming headline "BEHIND ENEMY LINES". If we want to show Palin and the Tea Party up for what they are, let's use good political points and let's not seize upon the first spurious imagery that we come across.

I was disappointed to hear Liverpool's management, fans and players going into full on whinge mode yesterday with an outpouring of "we were robbed" style complaints including a Tweet from Ryan Babel linking to a photo of Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt. Berbatov was tripped in the penalty area and I don't remember there having to be a degree of trip to qualify for a penalty. Gerrard launched himself recklessly off the ground in a two footed lunge almost identical to that which saw Joe Cole sent off on the opening day of the season. Have the rules changed since then? Surely he knew the risk that he was taking. I'm not anti Liverpool (for goodness sake I've got a season ticket) but wouldn't it be nice if one day someone stood up and said "You know what ref? You were spot on with both those decisions. It's our fault." Maybe we might then concentrate on winning by playing some good football and not by constantly moaning about our victim status.

Remember last week's feel good story about golden voiced homeless man Ted Williams? With millions of hits on YouTube it wasn't going to be long before a smart advertising executive realised the potential of getting more than the usual amount of interest in their advert. So congratulations Kraft and their Homestyle macaroni Cheese for getting there first.

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WELCOME My name is John Brassey ex MD of Instanta. I retired on 30/11/2010 but have continued blogging after enjoying writing Instanta’s blog for several years. This blog is charting our retirement and now and then there may be some words of helpful advice to businesses gained from my 40 years experience. I am 62 and was a lifelong supporter of Liverpool FC where I held a season ticket on the Kop for almost 40 years but lost interest in 2011/12 (although Klopp's arrival has rekindled the interest). I have plenty of other interests including photography, gym, travel, writing, metal detecting and cinema. I also love business mentoring which I do for several small businesses.I am married to Marion who worked with me at Instanta and we have two children. Sarah is 36 and lives with partner Duncan in St Andrews. With degrees in Maths and Philosophy, she started a career as a Maths Teacher but she's now a brilliant yoga instructor teaching mums, dads and kids. She's also mum to our lovely first granddaughter Rose (5) and our third Melody (3) who arrived in Sept 2013. After gaining a degree in PPE at Balliol Oxford, Paul (34) is working in TV as Head Of Development at Remarkable . He created Sky's smash hit sports panel show "A League Of Their Own" He and his wife Josephine presented us with our second granddaughter Catherine in July 2012 and our first grandson Theodore in July 2015. I love writing and my first two novels Give Me Your Tomorrow and Mr Pendergast's Fantastic FInd are now available from Amazon.Buy a copy and make me happy. Write a review and make me happier still.